“The 3-0 start in February feels great,” said Dionne. “I think this was a personal vendetta. We had a little scrap with those kids going…their senior class against our senior class. It was good to get a win in our backyard and I give a lot of credit to our seniors on that one.”

The Blue Devils improve to 3-0 for the first time since 2008 while the Quakers dropped their season-opener. The two clubs had split the past four meetings over the past four seasons.

“The game is always interesting because Penn has all of preseason to prepare for us,” said head coach John Danowski. “They had us down, they had us wired pretty good in terms of what we wanted to do in terms of clearing the ball and so on. They play hard. They’re very well coached, they have a plan and I thought it was a terrific game for us to see what we have. When you get hit in the mouth like that is your team going to fight back.”

After the teams traded goals in the first three minutes, Wolf and Case Matheis tallied consecutive markers to give the Blue Devils the lead for good. Penn pulled within 4-3 at intermission, but Duke used a 4-1 run to claim an 8-4 advantage midway through the final quarter on Dionne’s third goal of the night.

Senior close defenseman Chris Hipps sparked the 3-0 run for the Blue Devils in that 4-1 span, running the length of the field to score his second career tally. Hipps finished the night with four ground balls.

Duke’s defense was spearheaded by goalkeeper Luke Aaron, who in his first career start responded with 11 saves. Long stick midfielder Luke Duprey posted five caused turnovers and five ground balls while Brendan Fowler secured 14-of-19 faceoffs.

“Luke [Duprey] has been really under control,” Danowski said. “He’s having fun. He appears to be relaxed and he’s playing like a senior.”

The Quakers were led by Zack Losco’s three-point evening on two goals and one assist while goalkeeper Brian Feeney was credited with 10 saves. The game marked a homecoming for Penn head coach Mike Murphy, who was a captain of Duke’s 1991 squad.

Duke gets one day of rest before returning to host Stony Brook Sunday at 12 p.m. The game can be seen live on Blue Devil Network+ on GoDuke.com.